


Sunrises and Sarsaparillas

by Devereux13



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: First Meetings, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 14:02:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12558972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Devereux13/pseuds/Devereux13
Summary: Boone's first meeting with the Courier is just the distraction he needed in his boring repetitive life.





	Sunrises and Sarsaparillas

The night was silent as Boone watched from Novac’s famed Dino’s mouth. It was a normal, boring night. Boone had started to yawn an hour ago despite sleeping all day. Every now and then he would see some fiend or other thug get too close to the town, but he was quick to deal with them. They never saw him coming, much how he likes it. Boone was ready to labeled this night as another boring, everyday job, but then something different happened that would drastically change his life. 

He heard a shout first before anything. His sharp ears picking up the slight sound before he saw anything. After that first shout he heard many more angry voices yelling. A quick look through his scope he saw the trouble. 

In the distance ran a figure, and what looked like some sort of circular robot following closely behind. The robot was actually floating backwards and shooting at something that Boone couldn’t see through the scope. So, the bot was friendly towards the first guy. He moved his scope slightly and watched as foot soldiers of the Legion ran after this man. And the way the man was smiling brightly, well Boone would put money on the man out right taunting those bastards. 

It was amazing to watch, that is what stopped Boone from pulling the trigger on those men. For not a second before he could pull the trigger the man caught his attention. He moved his scope so that he could see the man yell out a command towards the bot, well what he assumed was a command as the bot stopped long enough in its on slaughter of laser beams to drop a small disk into the man’s hands. Boone raised his eyebrows in recognition. The man, no more like a kid as he got closer to the town, had a frat mine in his hand. And instead of throwing it behind him, he threw it in front of him. The kid was quick to jump over the mine, never once touching it to set it off. The foot soldiers though, they hadn’t seen what the kid had thrown since he threw it in front of him, smart thought Boone, who wasn’t usually impressed easily. 

Boone watched in astonishment as the kid threw back another insult towards the men who were getting more and more angry as the kept shooting but could never seem to hit their target all while trying to avoid the robot raining down its own shots. Boone almost allowed himself to laugh as he watched the first foot soldier step on the mine and saw him pause for the briefest moments before he stopped and the others ran into him, but before he could tell them to run the mine exploded. 

The explosion wasn’t a big one, the frat mine wasn’t that deadly. But as the smoke cleared Boone saw that most, if all the men were injured in one way or another. The first solider, the one who had been unfortunate to step on the mine had died on impact. The other three soldiers were all injured one way or another, in such a way they weren’t getting up any time soon. 

Now Boone had expected the kid to continue running until he reached the town. That is what any sane, non-combat person would have done. But once again Boone was stunned as he watched the kid, who had stopped running the moment the Legion bastard stepped on the mine, walk towards the remaining men, only to stop right in front of one of them. Boone couldn’t really make out what was being said, as no one was shouting anymore. But whatever the kid said brought a sick smile on his face and an angry sneer on the Legion’s face. An insult was thrown at the kid, but without breaking his smile he pulled out his side arm, a 10mm, and shot the solider point blank in the head. The other Legion bastards, who were all shouting various insults, had all stopped and the world around Boone had become quite again. But this silence was deafening as Boone almost held his breath to see what the kid would do. 

Another shot rang out as the second legion solider slumped to the ground. A bullet wound in between his eyes. The last solider stared at the kid, he didn’t say anything almost like he was accepting his death, he tried to show no fear, but Boone could see the fear in the bastard’s eyes, he had seen that fear so many times before. The kid must have seen it too for he hesitated as well. And for a moment Boone wasn’t sure if the kid could finish what he started and he would no doubt step in. But the doubt that was surely in the kid’s eyes was quickly gone with a shake of his head. Another shot rang out through the night. It echoed into the Wasteland as the solider slumped down. 

The kid holstered his weapon before dropping into a squat to loot the bodies. When Boone assumed he was done he stood back up and made his way to the front gates of Novac where he stopped to talk to that large robot that rolled in a few days before. That was all Boone could see before he watched the empty Wastelands once more. 

It was a couple hours later that the Boone met the kid and once again Boone was surprised that instead of kid, a kid Boone was sure of, he was met with the kind and gentle eyes of a mid-20s man. The man had the softest forest green eyes and wisp of blonde, almost white, hair flew out from underneath his cowboy hat. His nose was sharp, but his other facial features were smooth and almost childlike. His eyes were almond shaped and held a twinkle behind them that Boone couldn’t quite pick up. Something about this man-boy-kid, whatever you wanted to call him, something more than a simple gun for hire. But what stuck out the most about was the large bullet scar that was on his forehead. The scar spanned out like a star across the top of his head where his hair was cut shorter and the hat could not cover. No doubt the scar might have run further up his head, no telling how the deep the wound was either, physically and mentally. 

This man would be perfect for his little job. And when the stranger didn’t bat an eyelash at Boone’s proposition, he knew he picked the right man. It wasn’t until the next day that he saw the man again. He heard from passing to his post that the man had spent the night in Manny’s bedroom, or at least he was seen later in the afternoon leaving his room. Boone felt his eyebrow twitch at that thought, but he had no idea why. How the man chose to spend his time had nothing to do with Boone or his job. As long as the man got his job done that was all that matter. 

It was around 10 PM when Boone saw the man, wearing his hat, walk out to the front of the Dino chatting away May’s ear merrily, as if he wasn’t leading the old woman to her death. When her head exploded the man was in mid-sentence, Boone watched as the man only shrugged his shoulders before dropping down to search the woman’s body. The man had no shame it seemed. Well so did Boone. 

The man whistled all the way up to Boone’s look out, handing over a contract from May and the Legion slavers. It made Boone’s inside boil, but at the same time it shimmed down some of the hate he had been feeling for years. The man watched with curiosity, his hat still on top of his blonde hair. And for a moment Boone thought he was pretty cute. But he shook those thoughts from his head as he demanded his hat back. The pout that the kid gave him was enough to almost break, but Boone was strong as he firmly placed it back on his own head. 

And then something unexpected happened, the man invited him to join him. With a sweet smile and a promise of killing more Legion bastards Boone was quick to join. He couldn’t well stay in this town anymore, there was nothing left for him anymore. His wife was gone and so was her killer, so Boone agreed for whatever strange reason that complied him to say yes. The man beamed as he started to walk out the door, Boone was about to comment that he couldn’t very much leave his post during his shift but the man smiled almost as bright as the sun itself as Boone felt the first rays of the sun shine on his right side of left side of his face. Boone couldn’t help but smile, his first real smile as he followed the man out down the Dino and out of town. They were walking towards the sun. He heard the man make a comment about some old western vid and how they were doing this all totally wrong, the bot even beeping like it understood the joke its owner was trying to make. The man laughed at his own joke as he pulled out a sarsaparilla out of his pack. Boone almost didn’t catch the one that was tossed at him as well. When he clumsily caught it, he gave a gruff thanks as he twisted the cap off and tucked it away. The man smiled next to him before looking back towards the road. 

They walked silently for a while before a thought struck Boone, he had no idea what this man’s name was. He was so caught up in the idea of some form of adventure that he followed this man and his bot blindly into the sunrise down the old highway. When he finally managed to ask he got a sweet laugh in return. 

“The name’s Ranger.” The man laughed as he must had realized he never introduced himself. He shook his head, causing his own dusty hat to fall off his head. It floated to the ground and the man only laughed some more as he bent down to collect his hat, giving Boone full view of the man’s face and the scar that graced his forehead. 

“That can’t really be your name.” Boone questioned as he watched Ranger put his hat back on his head, firmly pressing it down. 

“I have no idea. I was shot in the head only a few weeks before. I don’t remember anything besides what people tell me now.” Ranger smiled even brighter if possible as if the memories of being shot in the head wasn’t that big of a deal. 

“What happened? Bad job?” Boone asked in a nonchalant way, looking straight ahead so he didn’t have to look at the horrible raw scar on his head. 

“I’m a courier and I was holding on to something very important. But I have no idea the value of it” The man said, but Boone didn’t have the courage to look at the man, so he simply looked straight ahead. 

“So, what now?” 

“Now, well now Boone my new friend, we hunt down the bastard who did this to me and pay him a little visit.” His voice instantly dropped, the cheeriness Boone had quickly got accustomed to was gone causing Boone to look at the man. 

Ranger was no longer smiling, instead he was looking into the vast Wasteland before them, as if he would be able to spot the man out in the distant. Boone knew that rage, knew that thirst for revenge. 

With a clamp on Ranger’s shoulder he let himself allow this small amount of contact. “Don’t worry, we will get that bastard.” He declared, still not having the courage to look at the man. By now they both had stopped to look at the rising sun. 

“I have no doubt about that. But now we have some other task to do.” The grim look on his face was soon gone as Ranger pulled up his left wrist to fiddle with a pip-boy on his wrist. How Boone had missed that was a mystery to himself. Seconds later Ranger made a sound of excitement as he looked at his crude map of the Wasteland. Smiling once more to Boone he nodded his head down the road as he continued his stroll towards the sunrise. Ranger was right, Boone thought, this was totally the opposite of any old cowboy tale.

**Author's Note:**

> One shot at the moment but might become more later on.


End file.
